We also learned yesterday from WCAV CBS-19 New Virgina that Leslie Macko, one of the token unemployed workers who stood next to Obama as he demagogued republicans about the bill was out of work because of her criminal record! Apparently, Macko was once employed at ACAC Fitness and Wellness Center in the Albemarle Square Shopping Center. However, in April 2009, a month after being found guilty of prescription drug fraud, she lost her job as an aesthetician in the spa at ACAC.

This gaff further enhances the Obama administration reputation as “the most incompetent presidency in history,” but to me the bigger question is what’s the true impact of paying people for almost 2 years not to work?

“Fun-Employed” Live it Up While Jobless

” When you’re fun-employed, you can relate to Mike Van Gorkom, laid off last year from Yahoo, totally laid back today. “I am loving this,” Van Gorkom admitted. What he’s doing now is hitting the beach and hitting golf balls.

Niki Shelley is using the time to be a starving artist. She gave up her high pay, high stress New York advertising job and moved to San Francisco. Now her typical day includes no stress. “Hang out in the park, have coffee with friends, garden in the backyard. A lot more personal time now,” Shelley said.

“While millions of Americans struggle to find work as they face foreclosures and bankruptcy, others have found a silver lining in the economic meltdown. These happily jobless tend to be single and in their 20s and 30s. Some were laid off. Some quit voluntarily, lured by generous buyouts.

Buoyed by severance, savings, unemployment checks or their parents, the funemployed do not spend their days poring over job listings. They travel on the cheap for weeks. They head back to school or volunteer at the neighborhood soup kitchen. And at least till the bank account dries up, they’re content living for today.

“I feel like I’ve been given a gift of time and clarity,” said Aubrey Howell, 29, of Franklin, Tenn., who was laid off from her job as a tea shop manager in April. After sleeping in late and visiting family in Florida, she recently mused on Twitter: “Unemployment or funemployment?”

“Funemployment is great for catching up on reading!” “Averaging 3 rounds of golf a week plus hockey and bball. who needs work?”

“Recession gives people permission to be unemployed,” said David Logan, a professor at USC’s Marshall School of Business. “Why not make use of the time and go do something fun?”

Isn’t it nice to live in a nation where the government forces honest workers to fork over trillions in new taxes to fund two years of funemployment for these lazy kids!

The Permanent “Leech Class”

I have a very close friend of Dutch heritage. She has often mentioned to me that the perpetual unemployment benefits in The Netherlands has resulted in a permanent “leech class;” citizens who have chosen to live off government handouts and never work another day in their lives. As you can imagine, these folks always vote for more taxes and entitlements. Clearly, this trend will eventually destroy the mother nation (particularly when combined with legal drugs and prostitution).

“Our findings that a stick works while a carrot doesn’t may be related to present-bias of some workers,” the economists write. “To the extent that some welfare recipients are present-biased, an incentive scheme that requires an immediate job search effort in exchange for delayed rewards in terms of a future bonus may not be an effective scheme. Benefit sanctions breaking the present bias by imposing immediate costs to lack of search effort might indeed be an effective and welfare improving scheme.”

In other words, the best way to get the unemployed back to work is to cut off their benefits — not to extend them. Sure, it’s “tough love,” but it’s the truth!

The Audacity of Stupidity

Hand holding and bemoaning the plight of the unemployed may make good politics for Obama (unless she’s a convicted drug crook), but the fact is no one needs two years of unemployment benefits. There are always lower paying jobs available somewhere and the fact is, if you lay around and watch TV for 99 weeks, you’ll probably do permanent damage to your future career.

To me, a nation that gives someone 99 weeks of unemployment is stupid. A person who accepts 99 weeks of unemployment is stupid. And a nation that elects a president who’s only economic stimulus for the private sector is to extend unemployment benefits to 99 weeks is stupid (or at least we get what we deserve — a a growing leech class).

You are delusional!!! Unemployment will not pay for a months bills and rent let alone food and or insurance. Try living on 800.00/month you idiot.Its people like you that make me SICK!!! Try it once and let everybody know about funemployment…hmmm, yeah, I can really haven fun not paying bills, getting evicted and going hungry. You are completly in the dark just like your ignorant republican counterparts. PAY ATTENTION to the job statistics. One job for every 5 applicants. Not hiring people with ruined credit or over the age of 40. Its people like you that really PISS me off

The reason you are unemployed is because a business that would hire you is scared to death of the Obama administration. They have no idea what this crazy, economically, illiterate President is going to do and this uncertainty is causing companies to stop hiring. Tax the rich! Guess what. The rich are the ones who invest in new businesses and hire people. If we tax the rich they have no money to start new businesses and hire people. If the recipient class becomes larger than the productive class and elects people who continue to raise taxes and give away money, unemployment will continue to increase. Use this time to understand economics. Read Henry Hazlit’s Economics in One Lesson.

Thanks for stopping by and weighing in; I actually think we agree on your two main points (personal insults notwithstanding).

First of all I have been unemployed during a recession and I agree you can’t live the life you once lived unemployment checks. In fact, I never even filed. I took two jobs (one during the week and one on weekends) doing manual labor. It covered about 60% of the $30,000/year I was making before I got laid off — just barely enough to pay my bills. It also got me focused on finding a new job (which I did).

I also agree that today’s unemployment situation is much worse. The unemployment rate today is 22%, not the 9.5% the president lies about. Also, he has taxed and regulated the private sector into refusing to expand as long as he’s president (this is not my reporting — see this web site for verified nonpartisan fact sources for everything I just said and more).

I can assure you that I am far from ignorant. And it can’t be “people like me that make you sick,” because I didn’t write the stories I referenced in this post. They came from the LA Times and the two Dutch Professors who studied the downside of unemployment for ten years, none of whom are republicans (nor am I).

I’m sorry for your misfortune, but it doesn’t seem like you have your facts in order. Please take a day out of your busy schedule and read all of the information on this web site. After that, check back and I’ll be glad to fill any blanks.

The bottom line is as long a Obama is president, things will get worse for any in the private sector or seeking a job in the private sector.

David … thanks so much for keeping us all informed. It sad to see people like Julie so hung up in their own situations that they don’t realize how they got there. The DEMs have been in control of the House since 2006 and Barney Frank (D-MA) and Chris Dodd (D-CT) are the major players in the financial meltdown that started the spirling downturn of our country … Obama took over and has created more problems. I suggest that Julie do like the rest of us did durning the Carter days … work harder at whatever job you can find, pray harder so that things will turn around, and stop complaining but instead educate yourself as you will certainly see how Obama is out of control with spending and it will only get worse. Obama has spent more in one year than Bush (under a Rep. controlled House) spent in his first 6 years of office. The Obama presidency is a prime example of how this country should not elect someone with NO EXPERIENCE except building playgrounds for his friends. He is a total disgrace and an embarassment to this country.

This article highlights the exception rather than the rule and is what the ruling class would have employed middle class people believe, as they work 2 or 3 people’s jobs with no overtime instead of businesses hiring based on realistic capacity. It is a reason to justify separation of the masses so instead of focusing on why people are unemployed – the mass outsourcing of jobs and legislation that encourages it – hard working people concerned about being collateral to the national debt can point the finger at the few abusers.

Instead of debating who deserves assistance, maybe the State and Federal government could employ people to monitor the job search results provided by some tiers of the unemployed. They can make phone calls to verify the job search. That would a) decrease the number of unemployed and b) weed out those who would make unemployment compensation a way of life.

To the employed people – you are being used as a pawn to justify the suffering of your peers. Yes, the 99ers and other unemployed people are your peers. HR executives, Managers, Engineers, Labor, Customer Service Reps,, Technical Assistants, Medical Billers, Clerical staff, etc. – you are not immune to unemployment. There are a lot of Chinese slaves and Indian doctors (among many others) wiling to work to work for less than is our minimum wage (that is near poverty according to Federal tax standards). This is only the beginning as business has an incentive called “maximizing share holder wealth” to outsource your job.

Until there are a sufficient number of legitimate jobs to employ the masses, unless we want to slowly erode the middle class into extinction as well as put out of business local employers, unemployment benefits need to be extended.

Yes and no. There would have been plenty of jobs if Obama had announced a freeze on tax increases when he took office. Instead he has dictated $2 trillion in new taxes on small businesses to fund Obamacare. Small business are being buried in new regulations due to Obama’s Financial Services Takeover bill, and on January 1, 2011, he and Pelosi will usher in the the largest income tax increase in the history of the United States. Obama has been lying to the American people about the true unemployment rate (22%) and doing everything he can to make it worse (unless you work for the Government). NO PRESIDENT IN HISTORY HAS DONE MORE TO DESTROY THE ECONOMY.